Opium

by Hodgson, Barbara

• ISBN13: 9780811824118
• ISBN10: 081182411X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc

Summary

With its connotations of mystery and sinister beauty, opium holds a near mythical place in the popular imagination. From swaying poppy fields to dimly lit, smoke-laden opium dens, author Barbara Hodgson traces the path of opium's creation and consumption, and describes how it has been alternately rhapsodized, demonized, and anointed. A seductive muse that fueled the visions of artists, writers, and poets including Baudelaire, Coleridge, Wilde, and Poe, opium was also used in hundreds of commonly consumed patent medicines. Today, opium remains one of the most widely trafficked drugs and its story is by turns strange, comic, and dark. Illuminated by an amazing array of archival photographs, rare engravings, movie stills, and lurid dime store book covers, Opium is an engrossing look at this illicit indulgence.

Author Biography

Barbara Hodgson is a book designer and writer. She is the author and designer of four novels and several works of non-fiction

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(10)
The Drowsy Poppy	11	(18)
Opium and the East	29	(24)
Intoxicating Fumes	53	(30)
The Writer's Muse	83	(22)
Chinatowns	105	(28)
Opium Hits the Street	133	(8)
Notes	141	(3)
Bibliography	144	(4)
Acknowledgements	148	(1)
Index	149